Monday, March 14, 2011

Wedding Superstitions

Wedding and marriage superstitions seem ridiculous to most people but many brides still follow these false notions so they will have a long wonderful marriage. Even though I am not a believer in all of these crazy superstitions I do know many women who believe in them. Some of these superstitions I have heard of but many of them are new and surprising. One very recognizable superstition is that when a bride is about to get married she needs something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. The something old is to make sure that the couples past connects with their future, something new is for the couple to have health, happiness, and success in the future, the something borrowed is a token of love from the bride’s family, and something blue is very significant because it represents fidelity and constancy. Another recognizable superstition is that the groom must carry the bride over the threshold because if the bride stumbles or falls down, it is considered bad luck. At the end of the wedding, family and friends often throw rice at the couple as they pass by. They do this to wish the couple fertility by transferring Mother Earth’s prosperity onto the bride and groom. It is said to be good luck if you see a rainbow, black cat, or chimney sweeper on your wedding day. It is bad luck for the groom to see the bride the night before the wedding and also if the bride tries the wedding band on before the ceremony. It is also bad luck to see a grave, pig or lizard on your wedding day. There are also superstitions that follow after that wedding as well. For instance, if a man or woman loses their wedding band, it may symbolize a break in their marriage. One extreme superstition from Hindu culture is the bride is given a knife or any other sharp metal entity to take with her at all times after she is engaged and until the wedding day, this allow the future bride to protect her virtue.

In conclusion, wedding superstitions and rituals seem ridiculous but it is rare to find a bride who doesn’t follow at least one of them. Every wedding that I have been to, I have seen one or more of these superstitions. And the bride always seems pretty serious about it. Even though these superstitions can be fun at times, they clearly aren’t doing their job considering about 40-50% of marriages in America will end in divorce. So I am pretty sure that they have no effect on a couple’s marriage and future.

2 comments:

My roommate was just recently proposed to and we actually looked up a few of these ourselves. In a way I think they are cute and kinda fun, but sometimes people can take it too far. But, sometimes it's just having a little fun to help with the wedding day jitters.

Pseudoscience and the Paranormal

The popular media and self-help industry is rife with extraordinary claims. Alien experimentation, psychic detectives, mediums, ESP, extreme therapies and miracle products are all examples of how pseudoscience and the paranormal have become prevalent, popular and even an extremely lucrative enterprise. The majority of these examples defy the basic laws of science, logic and common sense yet they appeal to a large number of people. Here we will use science, specifically a psychological perspective to explore these popular theories and claims, and learn to think critically in order to be able to constructively evaluate them.